Plutonium 238 production is crucial for the future of deep space exploration. NASA's supply of the isotope was dwindling, given that it was made during the Cold War, and not much made since. In 2012 production of Plutonium began once more, but only amounted to a trickle. Now, with help of new robotic systems, production has ramped up to 8 times amount coming out of Oak Ridge TN.

Dang, they got there ahead of Eu:Cropis (which is currently spinning up to provide lunar gravity in LEO for the tomatoes it will grow - but at least it'll then afterwards be the first to grow stuff at Martian gravity in half a year).

I suspect they're also testing local conditions like radiation and whatnot. Obviously it's got some sort of CO2 supply to keep the plant alive, but I can't imagine a little rover like that is going to have much in the way of radiation and thermal shielding; can the cotton plant grow in that condition is important. Especially if we ever intend to have farms up there...

Wonder what the specifics of the environment they're growing it in is, how long it's expected to live, etc.

I suspect they're also testing local conditions like radiation and whatnot.

Nah, the biological experiment capsule on the lander is way too small for that (it's on the lander platform, not on the rover). They'll probably crossreference with LND though, the radiation sensor suite contributed by the German Space Agency on the lander.

The lander basically only carries LND, the biological experiment capsule and a radio frequency spectrum analyzer mostly to detect solar storm emissions (being shielded from interference from Earth where it is; there's a Dutch-Space-Agency-contributed radio astronomy instrument for similar reasons on Queqiao, the relay satellite).

Plant growth is rather sensitive to gravity actually, especially plants that grow "bidirectional" (roots and stem).

There are also issues with testing certain automatisms in habitat environments, for hydroponics the water is an issue in particular; less the cycling, more the fact that you can't test that kinda thing anywhere where NASA gets involved because they want prohibitive triple encapsulation on any water-related experiment going to ISS (hence why e.g. Eu:Cropis tests this on a fully separate satellite, which has been waiting for SpaceX to launch it for two years now).

Inside the lander it isn't a natural light source. But there would be plenty of light outside. The main difference being that it isn't a 24 hour light cycle, lunar light goes on for days. Same for lunar night.

No really, it's a major eclipse, totality will last just over a full hour. There's schedules and maps for where it's visible from, but basically if you're in the western hemisphere and have clear skies, you're gonna get a nice view.

Xie said temperatures inside the biosphere had grown too erratic and reached extremes that would likely kill all life, including the seeds and eggs.

That's the kind of environmental concerns I was wondering about. The moon is pretty damn harsh when it comes to temperature; clearly whatever materials they were using as a lunar greenhouse didn't cut it. Sometimes you can only find out by trying in situ.

The lunar mini biosphere experiment on the Chang'e-4 lander is designed to test photosynthesis and respiration - processes in living organisms that result in the production of energy. The whole experiment is contained within an 18cm tall, 3kg canister that was designed by 28 Chinese universities.

The organisms inside have a supply of air, water and nutrients to help them grow. But one of the challenges, say Chinese scientists, is to keep the temperature favourable for growth when conditions on the Moon swing wildly between -173C and 100C or more.

They also have to control the humidity and nutrients. ...."It suggests that there might not be insurmountable problems for astronauts in future trying to grow their own crops on the moon in a controlled environment."

Logged

Clan Blood Spirit - So Bad Ass as to require Orbital Bombardments to wipe us out....it is the only way to be sure!

Currently in development is a probe called Lucy, set to launch in 2021 Lucy's mission will be to travel to 6 different asteroids. 1 asteroid will be in the main asteroid belt, the other 5 are asteroids in Jupiter's Trojans. Using the extremely successful ion engine (as seen on the Dawn orbiter that brought us to Vesta and Ceres), Lucy represents the next generation in space exploration with a complex mission.

Above is a higher quality image of 2014 MU69, one to tide us over until mid February when the highest quality images come streaming in from New Horizons. Courtesy of NASA and the Applied Physics Laboratory.

I can't wait for the really hi res stuff to come in from New Horizons. With how close it passed and remembering the treats we got of Pluto a couple of months after flyby, we might be in for some great visuals like this from Bennu.